Compensation for Doctors and Hospital Executives

The Baltimore Sun wrote an article a few months back on hospital executive compensation that I did not see until today.

No breaking news there: these guys make a ton of money. But it is interesting snooping around looking at non-profit health care providers’ salaries. Sometimes, hospitals will create a separate nonprofit for different services, such as the emergency room services. They are nonprofits so they have to name the salaries for what I think are their ten highest paid employees. I could give you a link to a few of these but it names names and gives salaries and that is a little too intrusive for me. But it is fair to summarize my research by saying these guys don’t want to hold up their salaries when arguing that high malpractice premiums are putting them out of business.

I’ve made this point before and I’ll make it again: I think doctors should get paid a ton of money, more than any other profession because I think the medical profession is, as a class, more important than any other. If I make a mistake, someone does not get the money and justice they deserve. Doctors screw up and someone dies. So feel free to make a fortune. Just don’t plead poverty and claim you are going to quit your job and go work at McDonald’s because you can’t earn a living wage because of your malpractice premiums.